P.S. Here’s your Jake Lockley

Ok, so “The Leftovers” (the novel by Tom Perotta) is, like, what I imagine a rough draft of the amazing, captivating, too-good-to-believe “The Leftovers” HBO show from, like, a fucking pitch meeting.

It’s not a bad book. It’s really not. But after watching the show, there’s nothing that thin little jaunt through surface-level post-Rapture existential crises can offer you. (Not that it’s about the Rapture, but that’s the easiest way to describe the Sudden Departure that occurs in both book and show.)

It’s like... imagine watching the THREE movies based on “The Hobbit” and expecting some big goddamn epic in the book, when the book is LITERALLY just kids stuff compared to what Tolkien had cooking.

I don’t know if I’d be mad at the show for going SO MUCH FURTHER in EVERY way if I’d read the book first, but ... as things stand, I am disappointed in the book.

What’s next.

Handmaid’s Tale the show is also better than Handmaid’s Tale the book.

That’s right! Fuck You, sophomore year college Lit class! TV did it better!

it’s funny how “literature” is becoming obsolete somewhat

the (actual) death of the author is the rise of the showrunner-—and the rise of the writer’s room

i am old enough to remember when tv was SHIT hahahahaaaaa

Me too. TV used to suck. Even — no, especially — the “high dramas”.

Way I see it, Sopranos changed the game, and LOST expanded the horizons for what was possible in terms of engagement with audiences and balancing between genres. LOST was Star Trek for the post-911 PTSD case, and it amped everything up, specifically production values and the scale of narratives.

It was imperfect, but it helped launch the world we live in now, where Soprano-home HBO apparently recruits LOST creators to find meh books and construct narratives out of their skeletons that probably make the author go, “Oh fuck, why is my book so simple and boring?”

(And obvioisly West Wing, Oz and especially The Wire played a huge part, but I’m pointing to Sopranos and LOST as the causal agent for TV betterment.)

Best thing on TV used to be that half hour where Seinfeld busted up Must See (because it’s impossible to avoid and still watch Seinfeld) TV. And Simpsons sometimes. King of the Hill... what have you.

you really missed out on buffy/angel

timing is everything i guess

Started Frankenstein tonight

Buffy and Angel still duke it out for my favorite show of all time.


Is this the one where Frankenstein's monster is a detective?

Also, literature is anything but obsolete afaic. I'm falling in love with the written word in a way I haven't known in nearly a decade. Thank you, and your exemplary prose, Mr. Rothfuss

just finished sombrero fallout for like the 4th time...



starting a confederacy of dunces, masterful that

Whatever the actual original is. No spin-off/derivative version. Just in case, this is the "reading" thread :P :D

after years of prodding sev finally started watching but could not get past the old timey 4:3 aspect ratio and 90s flavor of it lol

which is very unfortunate... and he missed out.

I still love literature. Just the film/TV adaptation-athon has gunned up the works a bit.

Used to be you could almost guarantee a book would be better than any film that might come of it. Now, things are different.

I blame Harry Potter!

No, seriously, anyone who’s watched “The Leftovers” and read “The Leftovers” surely can agree with me on this.

And “Handmaid’s Tale” feels downright barren (no pun intended) compared to what’s been made of it on the show, which is a much more effective portrait of the impending rise of religious authoritarianism.

not obsolete but... in decline, so to speak

writing used to be the last bastion of intelligence in a world of mass media

but not no more

or i should say-- TV is also "literature" now (the fancy kind)

been rewatching breaking bad now, and laughing so hard

either i've become stupider or tv has become really good

wishful thinking sez tv is wayyyyyyyy better than it once was

(but likely i have cognitive decline)

also consider that human resources that once would have flocked the novel, the theatre, etc (yes, theatron, fuck you, lol) are now going elsewhere

Ah. Sounds like my theory about since movies are now being released online, and shot digitally, that they're essentially no different than high budget YouTube videos

LMFAO, all this TV talk got me confused.

There's some (upcoming?) CBS show where Frankenstein's monster is a detective.

Of course you're reading the OG Mary Shelley novel though... not that Frankenstein Mobster comic book that I read once...





Don't mind me... I'll just be...

is anyone on goodreads??

I have an account from years ago, but I never do anything with it.

I was, but stopped on account of the pressures associated with publicly announcing when I start a book. I fuckin’ hate that shit.

My whole life is deadlines. I don’t need them imposed on me — in actuality or just perceptually, in my head — by social goddamn media.

But maybe I’ll try it out again. What can I say, I’m a wild one.

people who kill their social media report increased happiness

DO IT

KILL KILL KILL

DO IT

MHUAHAHAHAHAHAAAA

Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. so sad. RXTT's Intellectual Journey continues with a book that hits REAL close to home, Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. https://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2019/...has-never.html

fucking shit, this is your best review ever man.

thank you.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5295602-michael

Thanks man. Means a lot. Please share or disseminate if you like....

I have an account on goodreads, but then I realized it was just doubling up the work I put in to the blog. hahahha/

Has anyone here read Rip It Up and Start Again, by Simon Reynolds? Post-punk history that I'm enjoying from the first two chapters

“why big pharma is diving into gene therapy”

https://www.barrons.com/articles/why...py-51551493752

have not heard of it....

Yeah, really good. Seem to remember his chapter on SY being a bit anti, but makes a fair argument.

Went to the Tiny Town Library Sale today. It’s a great way to find cheap versions of authors you’ve wanted to read, but didn’t want to pay much for, since you may not like them

Scored

Things Fall Apart -Chinua Achebe
The Deal Breaker-Edwidge Danticat
The Black Book-Orhan Pamuk

Plus a few from authors I already have read...

The Outsider-Richard Wright
Troll Nation -Amanda Marcotte
No Good Alternative & No Immediate Danger-William T Vollmann

Any Vollmann fans on here? He’s a wordy fucker, for sure, but I’ve always loved his prose.

I haven't visited Goodreads in months. I reviewed some books. I obviously don't read as much as you guys though!

Finished a Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsey (1920) https://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2019/...920-still.html very cool old proto-sci fi book.

Finally finished Frankenstein. I'm definitely going a lot slower this year.


Started "The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism" and I purchased these:


https://www.instagram.com/p/BvFXJbsn250/

i started reading that book once because harold bloom once called it the best novel ever or something

it’s supposed to be a great gnostic treatise or something

i got tired of the multiple eyes and murders and abandoned it 2/3 of the way

harold bloom was much more enamored of gnosticism than i’ll ever be and probably understood the referent of all that crazy imagery

I would not have got it at age 23. I have read a lot of gnostic writings and books about gnosis and the various states of being that the Voyage to Arcturus is actually talking about.

I just finished re-reading Alfred Bester’s classic, “The Stars my Destination,” and now I’m looking for something new, slimming through samples on Kindle.

This looks good. I saw the author speak a while back, and I’m enjoying the sample. Might dive in:

looks interesting, but a lot of current Middle Eastern history seems to stem from times way before that. If he doesn't go back at least to 1920, I think it's missing a lot

oh nice. i got nothing of it unfortunately.

who is 23?

Just meaning, 23 years ago I would not have understood what I understand at 46.